Software Alternatives & Reviews

k3s VS Docker Compose

Compare k3s VS Docker Compose and see what are their differences

k3s logo k3s

K3s is a lightweight Kubernetes distribution by Rancher Labs intended for IoT, Edge, and cloud deployments.

Docker Compose logo Docker Compose

Define and run multi-container applications with Docker
  • k3s Landing page
    Landing page //
    2022-11-09
  • Docker Compose Landing page
    Landing page //
    2023-09-19

k3s videos

Siroko K3s Sun Glasses Unboxing and Review | Big Muscle Gains

More videos:

  • Review - Elecraft K3S Transceiver Review

Docker Compose videos

Docker Compose | Containerizing MEAN Stack Application | DevOps Tutorial | Edureka

Category Popularity

0-100% (relative to k3s and Docker Compose)
DevOps Tools
60 60%
40% 40
Developer Tools
48 48%
52% 52
Cloud Computing
61 61%
39% 39
IT Automation
100 100%
0% 0

User comments

Share your experience with using k3s and Docker Compose. For example, how are they different and which one is better?
Log in or Post with

Social recommendations and mentions

Based on our record, k3s seems to be a lot more popular than Docker Compose. While we know about 159 links to k3s, we've tracked only 11 mentions of Docker Compose. We are tracking product recommendations and mentions on various public social media platforms and blogs. They can help you identify which product is more popular and what people think of it.

k3s mentions (159)

  • Linux fu: getting started with systemd
    For self-hosting I've found https://k3s.io to be really good from the SUSE people. Works on basically any Linux distro and makes self-hosting k8s not miserable. - Source: Hacker News / 12 days ago
  • 15 Options To Build A Kubernetes Playground (with Pros and Cons)
    K3S: is a lightweight distribution of Kubernetes that is designed for resource-constrained environments. It is an excellent option for running Kubernetes on a virtual machine or cloud server. - Source: dev.to / 3 months ago
  • K3s Traefik Ingress - configured for your homelab!
    I recently purchased a used Lenovo M900 Think Centre (i7 with 32GB RAM) from eBay to expand my mini-homelab, which was just a single Synology DS218+ plugged into my ISP's router (yuck!). Since I've been spending a big chunk of time at work playing around with Kubernetes, I figured that I'd put my skills to the test and run a k3s node on the new server. While I was familiar with k3s before starting this project,... - Source: dev.to / 4 months ago
  • Building a no-code Helm UI with Windmill - Part 1
    I’ve created a local cluster with K3S and installing Windmill could not be simpler with just one chart to configure, which already has sane defaults to get started. For this demo we will also configure workers to passthrough environment variables to our scripts so that they have access to the Kubernetes API server for later. - Source: dev.to / 5 months ago
  • Highly scalable Minecraft cluster
    You should be familiar with Kubernetes and have set up a Kubernetes cluster. I recommend k3s. - Source: dev.to / 6 months ago
View more

Docker Compose mentions (11)

  • Monitoring symfony messenger listening to the worker events
    Docker and docker compose: We will use docker as a container manager and docker-compose as a tool to configure and start a redis container. If you have not used them so far, refer to the links to install them. - Source: dev.to / 6 months ago
  • Demystifying MLOps: Week 1
    To get the latest release of Docker Compose, go to https://github.com/docker/compose and download the release for your OS. - Source: dev.to / 10 months ago
  • Set up a multi-container app with docker compose
    Most of the newer versions of Docker Desktop already comes with docker compose command, although, you can always check the installation instructions at their official GitHub repository. - Source: dev.to / about 1 year ago
  • We Should Do Better Job of Visualizing Codebase
    Let's take an example - let's go to docker-compose repo page in Github and try to make sense of it. The first thing you gonna see there is: Looks impressive isn't it? Just another list of folder names and files which gives us only one idea - the project does consist of folders and files. Awesome thing, at list I know now that it doesn't consist of dragons and wizards, that is something which helps me as an... - Source: dev.to / about 1 year ago
  • Ask HN: A Better Docker Compose?
    > Docker compose is a dead end AFAIK .. What? I'm not involved and don't follow closely but pretty sure it's about as dead as docker itself. I.e. Not dead. There was commits 8hrs ago -- https://github.com/docker/compose/. Not sure who did that if not "the community". - Source: Hacker News / over 1 year ago
View more

What are some alternatives?

When comparing k3s and Docker Compose, you can also consider the following products

Kubernetes - Kubernetes is an open source orchestration system for Docker containers

k3sup - from Zero to KUBECONFIG in < 1 min 🚀. Contribute to alexellis/k3sup development by creating an account on GitHub.

Rancher - Open Source Platform for Running a Private Container Service

Docker Swarm - Native clustering for Docker. Turn a pool of Docker hosts into a single, virtual host.

Portainer - Simple management UI for Docker

Helm.sh - The Kubernetes Package Manager